Jewish Immigration into Mexico in Creases; Incoming Groups Have Professions and Trades

December 16, 1924

Mexico City (Dec. 15)

Jewish immigration on a large scale into Mexico is no longer a probability: it has become an established fact. Each boat to the port of Vera Cruz brings an ever-increasing number of Jews. The number of immigrants has increased from an average of seventy-five to five hundred a month, and it will continue to grow, according to the reports of the newly arrived.

With Mexico’s present status as a refuge for homeless Jews, the attitude of the immigrants has changed. They come here, now, not to stay the length of time necessary for their legitimate entrance into the United States as Mexican citizens, but with the prospect of making their homes in Mexico. In the port of Constantinople alone, according to an immigrant from there, there are thousands of Jews with the sole idea of reaching Mexico. These immigrants will reach Mexico not later than the month of February, coming as they do in relatively small detachments. The majority of them are Russians and Ukrainians, some Poles and Lithuanians, Czecho-Slovakians, Germans and others from the region of the Balkans.

Statistics compiled from the employment register of the B’nai B’rith agency in Mexico City show that approximately sixty or seventy per cent have trades and professions, and part of the remainder have some experience or apprenticeship in them. The number of merchants hardly exceeds fifteen per cent. While the distribution varies with each boat, the entire proportion runs something like from ten to fourteen per cent tailors and seamstresses, ten per cent shoemakers, ten or fifteen per cent mechanics and three to four per cent carpenters.